New Year. Happy. 2014. My 47th. Yay. I made it. I'm here. Thanks Mom & Dad. Thanks all who have helped me to be here now typing from the quiet comfort of my recording booth in the quiet comfort of my home.
I narrated a short piece from the New Yorker just now. I'm taking a small break before proofing it and sending it off to David, the Owner of the wonderful Assistive Media, a website for the blind, for which I have been volunteer narrating over the past 7 or 8 years (David hired me for my first ever audio book too!)
The piece is a review on a book written by a neurologist on our perception (a word, funny enough, I use all the time.) There were several words I had never seen or heard before and required my looking them up to know how to correctly pronounce them. This part of narrating I really like and have missed over the past 5 months of not narrating while waiting for the next project to come to me. (From October '12 through July '13 I narrated over 50 audio books for a couple of well-known audio book publishers, as well as voiced several corporate films and one small scene in an independent theatrical film.) It makes me feel smart. And, like I'm learning. Growing. Keeping my brain active. It's good.
So, I've decided to use my "full-time being Sam's Mom & volunteering at Sam's school" paid narration down time to volunteer my voice more to Assistive Media. Keeps me fresh. Working.
Also, I've decided to study again. (I've always been a big proponent for studying - had an acting teacher once tell me everyone in Hollywood studies no matter how high they get - Michelle Pfeiffer takes class - of course this was 25 years ago, but I've always liked the point.) My voice Talent/Teacher guru Master of the voice-over world Pat Fraley in LA just sent me an email for a correspondence course with him over five weeks I can do from my booth. Very cool. Very ingenious of Pat, whom I've travelled all the way to LA and Chicago several times to study with (and still refer students to all the time) to come up with a way to do individual personalized training with a student beyond his Webinars and home study materials available on his website. Morphing with technology. An admired trait.
My study is going to be going back to the basics of learning voice-over with an emphasis on long-term narration (perfect for all the audio book work I do.) I like the idea of returning to basics. Always have. I remember when I first worked at film star Jeff Daniels' Purple Rose Theatre and took a basic acting class because it was all that was available at the time and I was craving being in an acting class again. There's perspective. I'm sure that most of what I was doing in that class I had done in college but I was perceiving it in a different way because of my age and experiences. How can anyone ever become bored or run out of things to do or learn with this in mind?
I used to teach voice-over when I lived in Michigan and first set up my home recording system. There was a huge desire in the acting community around Southeastern Detroit for getting into and making money in voice-over. I hosted several professionals from bigger markets (including Pat) for weekend training events and also had smaller training events in a local studio and even my home. When I moved to the Dayton, Ohio area three years ago (husband's new job) I dove into trying to create here what I had started in Detroit and even wrote a book and used it with a one-day training event in a local studio for beginners. I just didn't have the desire though to continue teaching and it's been two years since I've coached. I do still get inquiries into starting out and always take the time to respond and offer some basic resources (like Pat and other voice-over websites and social platforms) to the people who have taken the time to search and find me on the Internet.
As a way to document and sort through my on-going process of performing behind the microphone (and some in front of the camera) as well as possibly give insight to those who are interested in voice-over I have created this blog Teri's Voice (the 's being taken for the web address and it being only Terivoice.blogspot.com.)
It's new and I'm not sure how and when and how often I'll post - or how long (like this one) the posts will be. I may even use this as a platform to post archival stuff from my journals (the ones that are safe and I haven't destroyed anyway) from the past that have information on my journey as an actor, voice Talent and teacher. Or as a place to post tips or how-to stuff. Maybe even a video or two if I can figure all that out with my new Mac laptop, which I haven't taken out of the box. Neat. 'Til then - here's a reminder link to my website which does have some info on me and also some resources under links that may be useful.
www.tericlarkvoiceover.com
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